1. Field of Invention
The invention relates to a tape printing apparatus that discharges printed tapes by using a tape discharge roller, and more particularly to a tape printing apparatus capable of reliably and safely discharging tapes from a tape discharge slot by positioning the tapes to be discharged in a shifted manner with respect to the tape discharge roller.
2. Description of Related Art
In the related art, there are tape printing apparatuses that accommodate a tape cassette containing a tape, printed characters such as letters and the like on the tape by using, for example, a thermal head or the like as pulling the printed tape out from the tape cassette.
For example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. 2000-71523 discloses a tape printing apparatus that includes a cutting mechanism that cuts a printed tape and forcibly discharges the cut tape from a tape discharge slot by using a discharge mechanism portion. By discharging the cut tape, that the tape discharge slot will not be blocked by the cut tapes in a case of successive printing and cutting operations. Thus, the tape printing apparatus is capable of securing favorable printing and cutting operations.
In this tape printing apparatus, a fixed roller and a movable roller face a discharging position of the tape. When a pressing force exerted by the movable roller on the fixed roller is released by a certain extent, a biasing force of a biasing spring that is inserted in a shaft portion of a roller supporting member is instantaneously released so that a hook member moves in a direction that separates the hook member from the fixed roller and maintains an abutting condition between the movable roller and the fixed roller. With this movement, a hooking portion of the hook member hooks to one end of a second projecting portion to rotate the second projecting portion in a counterclockwise direction. As a result, a main body of the movable roller is rotated in a discharging direction of the tape to forcibly discharge the tape from the tape discharge slot.